Honda Has Found New and Interesting Ways to Be Underwhelming in Formula One

Will Lewis Hamilton rediscover his lost form and capture a fourth Formula 1 world championship? Is Ferrari poised to knock Mercedes off its perch and bring Drivers' and Constructors' titles back to Maranello for the first time since 2007? Can the sport continue to thrive without Bernie Ecclestone at the helm?

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And will any of those coverage-worthy themes rival McLaren's globetrotting dumpster fire? Not a chance.

Having reached the strange place where its road cars are more heralded than anything produced by its Grand Prix team, the McLaren-Honda F1 program has all the makings of an MTV reality show with a nine-figure budget.

Somewhere between episodes of Ridiculousness and Teen Mom OG, this traveling road show of ineptitude has become a curious fascination for F1 fans and reporters alike. Will Fernando Alonso compare the Japanese brand's 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engine to a soggy soba noodle or a misfiring Ridgeline today? Which McLaren team principal will step forward to roast Honda in the press while boasting about the MCL32 chassis produced by the British firm?

And how many times has Jenson Button looked in the mirror since stepping out of the second McLaren seat at the end of 2016 and said "Perfect timing, buddy, perfect timing…"

Getty ImagesJose Jordan / Stringer

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With regression as its early-season reality and a dire need for an immediate rebound, McLaren—the second most successful team in F1's history—could be destined for its worst championship outcome since 1967 when the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing team finished 10th in the Constructors' race.

Since Honda's return to the F1 engine wars in 2015—one year after the new 1.6L turbo formula was launched, NBCSN F1 reporter Will Buxton says McLaren's beleaguered engine supplier (and sponsor) has found new and inventive ways to underwhelm.

"[Honda] came in with a year lead on everyone else and it was just horrible," the Briton said. "The interesting thing is this winter, almost every engine manufacturer said, yeah, we changed 95 percent of the concepts of our power unit this year, because the token system for upgrades has been removed [by F1]. You can upgrade it as often, whenever you want. Great.

"Pretty much everybody has said, right, we will take what we learned over the past three years, we will put that into effect and come out with something new. Something better. Something more competitive.

"Mercedes has done it, Renaut have done it, Ferrari have done it, [and] Honda is seemingly the only one of the providers that has seemingly gone straight back to where they were when they first came in with a unit that is hideously unreliable. And when it is running, it is underpowered to the extent that McLaren can't put the MCL32 through its paces because the car is not fast."

Getty ImagesJose Jordan

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From the cockpit, McLaren's two-time world champion has continued to deliver his special brand of blunt assessments in an era where most F1 drivers are reluctant to speak unfavorably of their car or engine.

"When Alonso tells you he is flat through every corner in Barcelona because the car is so underpowered, they've got major issues," Buxton continued. "And it all stems from the [motor] in the back. I saw it at the launch. I looked at the back of the car and I thought, that's got to be launch bodywork, because I looked at the body of the car and I could've fit my head in through the rear of the car. There was that much space between the packaging at the rear and where the lump was in the back of the car.

"That's got to be—either that is launch bodywork or they already know they've got serious heating issues—or worse—with that engine. It seems like the thing is either shaking itself apart or just not working. They've had electrical [issues]…the oil [tank] was the wrong shape and size so they had to go back and redesign it. It is unbelievable."

Buxton's blood pressure began to rise when the topic of McLaren and Honda repeating recent history was mentioned.

"Our children learn from their mistakes…that is what you do," he said. "You make mistakes and you learn. You don't go back and repeat the same mistakes. I mean, it is dire. It is absolutely dire at the moment to the point that people are asking, what ought McLaren do? With the Manor team no longer here, there's a Mercedes power unit supply going spare. Could they, would they drop Honda? I don't think they can because Honda, while it provides power units, it also throws a decent figure into the McLaren kitty every year for the car, about $100 million, something like that."

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From the swing and miss on its return to using a traditional orange livery to the plight of Alonso's promising new teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, it's clear that Buxton—and any F1 fan, for that matter—recognizes McLaren's need to extinguish the dumpster fire and get back to its place of reverie.

McLaren

"The only thing we had to get excited about McLaren really in the off-season was the livery," he reckoned. "Oh, we're going to have an orange car. It's hideous. I mean, paint the thing orange, stick some black stickers on the side of it and you're done. It's not that hard. I don't like the McLaren livery, but that is literally the least of their problems right now.

"I feel for everyone over at [the team] because they work so hard on the car. It's got some really interesting design points on it but they can't run it fast enough to know whether it works or not. And that is exactly the problem they had back in 2015. Exactly the [same] problem.

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"Fernando will be fine. He will scream and moan that he's got an F2 engine in the back of his car. He will get himself a decent ride next year, or he will go to Le Mans. The person I feel for is Stoffel Vandoorne. He is the kid—one of the best things I ever saw in GP2, certainly in terms of drivers in the Pirelli era, he was one of the best. And he stands to lose out big time because if the cars awful, the engine is dying on him all the time, how is he supposed to show what he could do? How is he supposed to show anything? We all know how good Fernando is. But how is Stoffel supposed to show anything?

"I don't know what happens. But something has to because it is push coming to shove, and unless something changes, that relationship [with Honda]–it's already pretty toxic. It is on the verge of going ballistic. It is just–it is a shocker, man. And we are all sitting there thinking, how could this be so bad? How could McLaren and Honda go so wrong. Nobody wants to see McLaren or Honda at the back of the field. Nobody. It's beyond belief."

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